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MT. PLEASANT, MI - It was a rough day for all but three University at Buffalo wrestlers on the first day of the Mid-American Conference Championships at Central Michigan University on Saturday.

Buffalo has three wrestlers alive heading into Sunday's action, with

Ryan Bentley

senior Ryan Bentley (Ripley, NY/Ripley) in the consolation bracket at 149 pounds and Labe Black (Ventnor, NJ/Absegami) and Gary Cooper (Adams, NY/South Jefferson) both in championship finals. Wrestling starts at 1 pm on Sunday.

Bentley lost to Ohio's No. 1-seeded Jake Percival, 5-0, in his first match, but rebounded to defeat Oliver Vazquez of Northern Illinois by a 12-8 score to stay alive. Bentley will wrestle Kent State's Jason Bake in the consolation finals on Sunday.

Black, seeded third in the event, will take on No. 1-seeded Scott Owen of Northern Illinois in the 157-pound final on Sunday. Black beat second-seeded Mike Tolar of Kent State in a tiebreaker to get to the finals. Black lost to Owen, ranked third in the nation by Intermat Wrestling, by a 13-2 score in the team's dual match two weeks ago.

Cooper, a senior, advanced to the finals with a 9-8 win over Northern Illinois' George Kirgan and by medical default over Kent State's Ken Clark. On the other side of the bracket, Ohio's Ed Willis defeated No. 1 seed Mitch Hancock by a 7-3 score to set up a meeting with Cooper in the finals. Cooper beat Willis 5-3 in overtime in their previous meeting this season.

At 125 pounds, freshman Mike Sebaaly (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) won his first match before being pinned by Kent State's Jared Opfer. Sebaaly was eliminated by Ohio's Matt Stevens, who earned a fall in :20

At 133 pounds, Mike Trotta (Oceanview, NY/Oceanview) lost to NIU's Sam Hiatt, 4-2, and was eliminated by Eastern Michigan's Zac Pyles by a 3-1 score.

At 141 pounds, Cliff Smith (Merrick, NY/Merrick) lost to NIU's Josh Wooton by a 10-6 score and was eliminated by Ohio's Paul Hodermarsky by a 4-1 score.

At 165 pounds, Tom Paladino (Bethpage, NY/Bethpage) lost a tough 3-2 decision to No. 1 seed Kevin Carr of Central Michigan before losing to Ohio's Luke Moore by a 7-5 score.

At 184 pounds, Garrett Bontempo (DuBois, PA/DuBois) lost to No. 1 seed Ben Heizer of Northern Illinois by an 8-0 score and was eliminated by Kent's Alex Camargo by an 8-6 score.

At 197 pounds, Kyle Cerminara (Lewiston, NY/Lewiston-Porter) - the defending MAC champion - defeated Kent State's Zeb Miller in his opening match 6-1. He was defeated by NIU's James Oliva, 2-1 (tiebreaker), and lost in the consolation bracket to Ohio's Joel Weimer by a 5-3 score.

At heavyweight, Harold Sherrell (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) was defeated by No. 2 seed Erik Jones of Ohio by a 9-5 score, before being ousted by NIU's Jack Dennis by medical default.